Designing Their Own Future

The Daily Star
Lebanon

Since the co mpetition wrapped a few months ago, BIAT has offered finalists and winners business support, creative spaces and offices to operate from, along with ongoing guidance to ensure project sustainability. For instance, BIAT offered 23-year-old Hisham Naboulsi, one of the competition’s winners, a workspace in their building’s basement, where he has set up a makeshift T-shirt printing business.

Using everyday items like clothing lines, a hair dryer, an ironing board and a water pump, Naboulsi was able to print customized designs on high-quality shirts he purchased from discounted outlets. Naboulsi studied mechanical engineering in college, abandoned a job in Saudi Arabia after just months to return to Tripoli and develop his passion for silk printing. Through the entrepreneurs program, Naboulsi, who is self-taught, partnered with his brother and fiancee to turn his hobby into an expanding business called “H-Shirt.” He recruits part-time designers to help create new designs.

“[After the training] I learned to talk business and my strategy changed; it became more interactive,” said Naboulsi, who realized that engaging clients in the process of T-shirt design was better than obliging them to choose from a few preselected shirts. In fact, H-Shirt’s slogan is “Express Yourself.” For Naboulsi, a T-shirt has to have a story.

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